In many roles, it can be useful to be able to accurately determine the value of real estate properties (“properties”), such as residential real estate properties (“homes”). As examples, by using accurate values for homes: taxing bodies can equitably set property tax levels; sellers and their agents can optimally set listing prices; and buyers and their agents can determine appropriate offer amounts.
A variety of conventional approaches exist for valuing homes. Perhaps the most reliable is, for a home that was very recently sold, attributing its selling price as its value. Unfortunately, following the sale of a home, its current value can quickly diverge from its sale price. Accordingly, the sale price approach to valuing a home tends to be accurate for only a short period after the sale occurs. For that reason, at any given time, only a small percentage of homes can be accurately valued using the sale price approach.
Another widely-used conventional approach to valuing homes is appraisal, where a professional appraiser determines a value for a home by comparing some of its attributes to the attributes of similar nearby homes that have recently sold (“comps”). The appraiser arrives at an appraised value by subjectively adjusting the sale prices of the comps to reflect differences between the attributes of the comps and the attributes of the home being appraised. The accuracy of the appraisal approach can be adversely affected by the subjectivity involved. Also, appraisals can be expensive, can take days or weeks to complete, and may require physical access to the home by the appraiser.
While it might be possible to design systems that automatically value homes, such automatic valuations would generally be performed based upon the contents of a public database, and without input from each home's owner or other information not in the public database. In such systems, failing to consider such information may result in valuations that are significantly inaccurate in some instances.
In view of the shortcomings of conventional approaches to valuing homes discussed above, a new approach to valuing homes that was responsive to owner input, as well as having a high level of accuracy, and being inexpensive and convenient, would have significant utility.